Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me. It had a similar vibe to "The Daughter's War" by Christopher Buehlman. While I appreciated the sarcastic dialogue, I found the plot lacking and the pacing slow. I think this book would be better enjoyed in audio format. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review it early.

While I enjoy fantasy romance, I also really love epic fantasy, so I was excited when I saw Tor coming out with this debut fantasy novel. It sounded like an odd mix of classic fantasy tropes (a quest-based story featuring various monsters/challenges along the way) paired with a bit of wackiness (that mostly came from this cover, which I like, but is definitely unique!) And honestly, those impressions were pretty spot on!

The story definitely strikes an interesting tone. The world itself is violent, grim, and full of danger. But at the same time, there is a comedic dash to much of the writing, giving the entire thing a strange feeling of chuckling through horror. To speak further to the grimdark nature of the story, in many ways the story highlighted the often understated discomfort and misery that would accompany quests like this. Our characters spend the majority of their time freezing, tired, and often underfed. Nothing about this sounds like a good time. There are no grand shots of a line of characters making their way through majestic mountain-scapes. Instead, it is much more realistic portrayal of the sheer misery that would make up much of a journey like this.

On top of that, the story doesn’t shy away from darkness. No character is safe from horrible outcomes, so definitely don’t go into this one with any expectations of invisible safety nets around main characters, animals, or children. There was crying, I’ll say that much.

But, again, this story isn’t just a slog of depression. For one thing, the action and pacing was nonstop, so even if dark things were happening on the page, everything was moving along so fast that the reader is already swept into the middle of another action set piece before they’ve had a chance to truly feel the effects of the previous scene’s action. On top of that, our main character and secondary main character were so strong that they easily balanced out some of the rougher bits of grimdark action (this last point is a preference thing to some extent, as grimdark has never been my favorite subgenre in fantasy fiction, but is very popular on its own for other readers!)

Anji was fantastic. Here is a character who truly embodies the concept of “too stubborn to die.” The world kicks her down about a million times, and yet she keeps fighting, even in the face of odds that are severely stacked against her. Hers is also a story of confronting the realities of the world and the trade offs found in every decision, even if it was the right one at the moment.

Anji’s impulsivity and, to a weird extent, naivety about the world is balanced by the Hawk, the legendary warrior tasked with bringing Anji to justice for her crime of killing the king. As the story unravels, we learn more about the Hawk’s background and her own complicated moral code. Here, again, is a imperfect character who is living with the results of her choices. Dealing with the consequences of one’s choices and actions, be those known or unknown consequences, was a big theme of the book, and I think the author did a great job of mostly presenting questions to the reader, without preaching any simplistic answers. Instead, the reader is left to grapple with the fact that sometimes there are no fully “good” answers to the problems of the world.

Overall, this was a fantastic read! There are definitely elements of the story that will be familiar to epic fantasy fans, but everything is tied together so well as to make the entire thing feel like a breath of fresh air. And, like I said before, the odd balance in tone between incredibly grim events alongside a more light style of storytelling made for a very unique-feeling read. I definitely recommend this one to epic fantasy fans!

Rating 9: An incredible debut and a breath of fresh air to epic fantasy fiction!

Link will go live May 21 on The Library Ladies

I really enjoyed this book!! This is such a fun adventure from beginning to end. Anji and the Eagles banter and growth throughout the book was so much fun to read. Every single character in this book was written so well. Looking forward to more from this author!

This one hooked me early and kept me tense all the way through. Anji Kills a King is the kind of fantasy I’ve been missing. It’s tight, grounded, and not remotely interested in being precious. The world is dark, the stakes are real, and nobody is safe.

It was refreshing to read a fantasy that didn’t center romance and still kept me fully invested in the characters. The relationship between Anji and Kit was nuanced, layered, convincing, and one of my favorite parts. Almost all of the central characters are women, and the story never treats that like a novelty. It just is, which made the whole thing feel even more lived-in and real.

The world building is seriously creative, especially the magic system, which feels both strange and grounded. I do wish we’d gotten more explanation about how some of it worked. It wasn’t confusing so much as light on detail and I just wanted more of it. There were moments where the tension was so sharp I caught myself holding my breath. And while I guessed some of the ending, I didn’t mind. The twist at the end still hit hard and left me genuinely stunned.

Also, just a quick note: this book does not shy away from violence. It’s gory and gritty, but in a way that feels earned rather than gratuitous. The author isn’t afraid to let his characters suffer, and it works.

The epilogue was everything. I’ll be watching closely in hopes of a sequel.

4.75 rounded up to 5.

This was a dnf for me at 20%. Unfortunately the main character just felt too whiny and couldn't seem to understand that she couldn't get away from her captor due to magic. She tried 3 times to escape despite evidence that she physically couldn't and would be hurt trying.

I do really love the idea of masked mercenaries who track bounties down and have different animal aspects and never show their faces. That's a very fun concept similar to Mandalorians and a novella coming out soon called Brighter than Scale Swifter than Flame so if you loved that aspect check out the other!

Anji Kills a King is kind of like if the side quest in your favorite fantasy became the whole story. We're on a journey, but not sure why or what for. The stakes were incredibly high, and the deaths/loss along the way were violent and sad, but again, I wasn't sure why. In order for the traumatic events to make sense, we need to truly believe in our hero, support their cause, and root for their success. But with Anji, I just didn't know enough to say with confidence, yes, the deaths of these innocents are worth ensuring our hero's success.

I also think this book should be a stand alone. We didn't get enough world building or history to justify a continued storyline. I don't even know what the hero is fighting against. General corruption? Religious extremism? There just wasn't enough plot for me to know who the bad guys are and why they need to be toppled.

But all that being said, I had fun with this book. It was a very fast, fun read. A really impressive debut from Evan. I'm just not craving any more of this universe or this character.

Anji Kills A King is quite action packed; we spend most of the book wondering why, and by the end question if it was the right thing to do or not. Anji is cheeky and spirited while Hawk (the bounty hunter after Anji) is gruff and determined. A lot of the story is spent traveling between places with short chapter, and very fast pacing. I felt like it was a bit predictable.

Please note the book is rather gory and full of bodily fluids and it made it hard to read at times. I really wanted to know and understand the characters more in this story, and I wish they had been fleshed out more. However, it was still very well written and I, for the most part, really enjoyed it and appreciated the advanced copy!

I really wanted to like Anji Kills a King, but it is not a story for me. The story starts off incredibly fast paced, with the title mentioned King dead before the end of the first page. Unfortunately the story slows down after that and I started to lose interest in what was happening. While I enjoy morally grey and vaguely unpleasant characters, I just could not get interested in these characters. I do think that there is an audience for this book, it was simply not for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book enough to want to finish the book, but it wasn't amazing for me. I do think there is an audience for this book and I will be recommending it for the people that I think are a good fit for it.

I really enjoyed the beginning and the end, but the book really slowed down and I lost interest in the middle of the book.

I love the characters. Anji was spunky and fierce. The Hawk seemed ruthless, but you can tell it is in a protective, "this is for your own good" kind of way.

I also enjoyed how the book started after Anji had already killed a king and she was on the run. I thought that was different and creative.

This book was, honestly, a disappointment. There is also a matter of reader manipulation by the author, where he familiarizes us with the horse that accompanies Anji and The Hawk, gives the horse a name, and then kills it HORRIBLY in the next chapter. And just to ass insult to injury, the following chapter relates the tragic death of a cat from Anji's childhood. I'm curious what the point of that was.
There is a larger issue of Anji's annoying characteristics, which, in a better written fantasy novel, could have been forgiven. I found, however, for Anji Kills a King to be lacking in its worldbuilding.
I really have come to expect more from Tor.

Easy 4.5 stars! What a solid debut! Intriguing premise, fantastic character work, accessible writing style, timely social commentary, manageable length - there's nothing not to like here!

I love that readers are thrown right into the action from the start and then the story unravels as a somewhat backwards progression as more and more of the history and backstory is revealed about each of our primary characters. I didn't expect this book to be as character-driven as it was, but now that I've read it I really can't imagine it any other way. Journey stories are notoriously difficult to pull off, but the emphasis on the characters' growth and evolving dynamic made the occasionally slower pacing more palatable.

Leikam's writing style is a real treat and I'm already eager to see what he writes next. It's not simple or dumbed down, but is still written using language that feels comfortable and easy to take in. Combine that with an average length and you've got a great read for fantasy readers who are newer to the genre or are intimidated by 800 page monstrosities. It's nice to find something quick and easy to read that still has some substance.

I found this read super fun and I already can't wait to get my hands on the sequel. Leikam is definitely an author I'll be keeping my eye on moving forward.

Special thanks to Tor for sending me an advance copy!

The title of Evan Leikam’s new novel, Anji Kills a King, isn’t a spoiler. The king is dead by the end of the first paragraph. This story is all about what happens after Anji kills the king of her miserable, economically depressed, and religiously oppressed country. Who is going to change things for the better in the middle of a power vacuum? And is Anji going to survive being chased down by the deadliest bounty hunters in the nation?

Anji doesn’t get far from the capital before she is captured by the Hawk, an acerbic member of the Menagerie. There’s no one to rescue her. She wasn’t working with rebels against the king’s punishing rule. But when another member of the Menagerie finds Hawk and Anji, Hawk kills him rather than allow him to help escort Anji back for torture and execution. Hawk won’t turn Anji free, however. She is adamant that she needs the reward Anji will bring. Anji Kills a King swiftly transforms from thriller to journey and back to thriller as Anji and Hawk battle the elements, the other members of the Menagerie, and each other.

I almost gave up on this novel. The beginning was rough going for me due to a little too much telling and not quite enough showing. (There’s also a ludicrously labeled creature at one point in the novel.) This style of exposition makes it hard for me to really imagine the world Anji and the other characters inhabit; there are places where this book reads more like set dressing rather than lived-in worldbuilding. Hawk won me over. I stuck around to find out what she was really up to and I’m glad I did because the last third of the book introduced some interesting consequences for the murder Anji committed. With the king dead and no alternative to the hopelessly corrupt and oppressive institutions, things for ordinary people might be even worse than if the king were still alive.

Anji Kills a King is the first novel in a planned series. Based on how this book ended, I expect that the next books in the series are going to be an exciting tangle of politics and bloodshed with Anji in the middle. Will she try to make life better for the people being ground down by the current regime? Will she light out for the territories? Will there be more creatures with silly names? We’ll have to wait for the next installment to find out.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC of this book available for my review.

Relentlessly dark and dystopian, events in this book make things more and more difficult for Anji. The vast majority of the population is suffering under the hands of religious zealots and unprincipled government officials, and Anji is being hunted for the assassination of the king. Since this is the first book in an anticipated series, things might look up. Eventually.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the ARC!

3.75/5 stars

This was a well written, fun, interesting, and engaging story. It had all the makings of an amazing fantasy, but I can't say that it felt incredibly unique. But regardless, it was a lot of fun to read and I really did enjoy the story and the characters. I loved the concept of a group of bounty hunters in the persona of animals, employed by the government and make into folk heroes to the masses.....who are also just people that become twisted by power and begin to enjoy the pain they inflict. It was fascinating to read and watch develop, especially when entwined with the poignant commentary on corruption in power and religion.

But my favorite part was how Anji became an assassin and perpetrator of regicide - basically by accident. She is brash and stubborn and annoyingly unwilling to change or listen most of the book, but she's an interesting FMC that just sort of stumbles into the history books - I really enjoyed wondering what she would do next.

This is an amazing debut and while it wasn't perfect, you can bet I'll read whatever Leikam puts out next - every epic fantasy lover needs to check this out!

I love this cover, it's one of the more inventive covers I've seen in a long time, you can tell a lot of effort went into it. As far as the book goes, I think it was good, I just with there were a little more depth to the characters. I will also say the violent acts were more akin to a darker fantasy than the air that this one had.

3.5

A really good debut. Very easy to read fantasy story hitting lots of tropes, which isn't a bad thing. I felt like the characters were just a bit shallow and like I've seen other reviews say, the Hawks character arc seemed really out of place.
I am excited to see Anji take on a new role in life though and will check out the sequel!

So look. Anji Kills a King is basically a long, tortuous road trip with so much blood and other gross bodily fluids that it was tough for me to finish! Basically you've got Anji, who (yes) kills the tyrant king of her country and then goes on the lam. She's quickly picked up by a bounty hunter, the Hawk, and then the rest of the book is them on the road back to the capital where Anji is to be tortured and executed for her crime. And I'm not talking about an Immortals After Dark "Torture Island" road trip that, while tortuous, is also sexy. The Hawk takes a lot of time bringing Anji to the capital city, and the encounter a lot of different people on the roads who want to separate them so they can get the money for her capture themselves. We will eventually discover why Anji killed the king, why the Hawk is so single-minded about collecting the bounty, and what the consequences will be for both of them if Anji escapes, but it takes a lot of miles traveled, blood spilled, and black saliva spit to get there.

If you like fantasy road trips but wish there was less romance and lots more blood than LOTR, this is the book for you. This is the first in a series, but I don't know if my stomach is strong enough to continue, despite my interest in the continued plot (assuming Anji gets off the road)!

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the audiobook.

This is a quick read, especially for a fantasy book. Anji is on the run after killing the king and her sense of urgency propels the reader through the narrative. She is pursued by the Menagerie, a famous band of bounty hunters, but not all is as it seems. This book raises a lot of interesting questions about rebellions and their pitfalls. I found it a bit heavy handed at times and inconclusive at others, but there's a plot twist at the end that caught me by surprise and really added a lot of depth to the narrative.

Anji kills a king.... which may or may not have been the right decision. He's a tyrant, so it had to be right, right? She's on the run, with a large bounty on her head. She thinks she's in the clear until a mercenary soldier known as the Hawk finds her to bring her in. But the bounty is high, there are others after Anji (who may have been poisoned by the Hawk), and their adventure back to the palace is challenging on physical and emotional levels.

I loved the tone of this fantasy novel! It's quippy and adventurous, even as it touches on unfairness of empires and wealth distribution. The worldbuilding exists in the margins of the story - it's character driven so we learn a lot about the way the government functions through critical conversations between Anji and the Hawk. They discover they come from similar backgrounds, with the religious Order of Inheritance providing food in exchange for sermons (and indoctrination).

Anji is young still, and her actions are inexperienced, but we see the implications of this on page as she struggles to learn nuance in her highly charged political world. Even as she discovers the Hawk's goals and believes them to be on the same side, she learns that being against the king isn't the same as having the same goal.

CW: drug use and drug addiction to a fantasy drug are prevalent in the story.

My thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this fantasy book that begins with a jolt, and never lets up, with surprises, twists, and lots of great world building and even better intriguing characters.

Fantasy books have a style, a way set down from on high, from the master of High Fantasy one could say. One meets a character, that character seems weak/poor/lost in the world. This character learns that they are capable of great things, the world is build, usually there is a bit of walking or riding, and other things happen. This book has no time for this. Few books start right from the first sentence, like this one. To quote Max von Sydow's character King Osric in the movie Conan the Barbarian: "What daring! What outrageousness! What insolence! What arrogance! I salute you.". This book goes for it, with ideas that are fresh and different, some not really covered in a fantasy setting, with characters that one really comes to care for. And is a heck of a lot of fun to read. Anji Kills a King is a debut novel by podcaster and writer by Evan Leikam and the title pretty well sums up what happens in the beginning, but one that goes to many, many dark places as the novel goes on.

The title is the spoiler so I am not ruining any plot here. Anji is a woman who has lost everything, including her freedom, working as a laundry woman for the King. A king who Anji dispatches with a letter opener. Anji escapes into the night with only a metal coin a remnant of her dead mother and a dagger from her murdered father. Anji makes her escape, but like most criminals has concentrated more on the crime, than the evasion. Anji needing money stops at a tavern, has too much to drink and is captured by Hawk, a member of the Menagerie. The Menagerie are a group of bounty hunter assassins, all with masks showing a particular animal, and part of the enforcement wing of a group of sun worshippers. Sun worshippers who have gained a lot of power in the realm. Hawk binds dark magic Anji to her, also informing Anji that Hawk has poisoned her, and an antidote must be given every 24 hours. Anji getting over her shock of capture is informed that her bounty is the highest bounty ever offered, and that a long torturous death is to be expected. However Hawk seems in no rush to turn in Anji, in fact doing her best to avoid, or eliminate others from taking her prize. A prize that is beginning to feel there is a lot more going on than she understands.

This is the kind of fantasy that I can really get behind. A plot that seems simple, but gets more complex and deeper as the book goes on. A world that gradually unfolds, one that is also much darker than one expects. The characters seem real, doing dumb things that make sense at the time, and having to deal with the consequences as they come. There are a lot of consequences. Add in drugs that make creatures super fast, super strong and demons. Political subterfuge, twists turns and a lot of wow we are really doing this. A really fun story, with a lot going on.

This is the start of a series, one that I think will be quite good, and one I am looking forward to. People wanting a little more caffeine in their fantasy will enjoy this, as will role players looking for fresh ideas and new ways to incorporate magic and how to get an adventure moving. I really can't wait for more books in this series.